Re: Fuel Cells and "green" energy

[Daniel Schroeder <DSCHROEDER@CC.WEBER.EDU>]

> But today hydro produces only 8.5% of our electricity and electricity is
> less than 20% of our total energy demand--so about 2% of the total.
> Improving existing installations by 25% only brings us up to 2.5% total and
> less than 11% of the electrical....
>
> Rick

Rick, according to the 1999 Annual Energy Review, hydroelectricity
accounted for 3.2 QBTU in 1999, or a little over 3% of total U.S.
energy consumption.  As you know, 2/3 of this figure is fictitious
energy, added in to make the comparison between hydro and thermal
generation a fair one.  (Thermal plants are only about 1/3 efficient.)
Electricity *consumption* was actually only about 12% of total U.S.
energy consumption in 1999, but the fuel used to generate electricity
was about 35% of total U.S. energy consumption.

Dan